Chapter 11 - The Sapphire Pendant
My hand flew to the sapphire pendant.
The same pendant I had believed was an encrypted recorder designed by my father’s security company.
Dad looked at it.
Then at me.
Something like horror crossed his face.
“You told me this was built by your security team.”
“It was modified by them.”
“Modified?”
Dad stepped closer.
“The sapphire belonged to your mother.”
I knew that part.
He had given it to me on my twentieth birthday.
I had worn it almost every day since.
“What is inside it?”
Dad did not answer.
Uncle Richard was still watching through the video call.
He laughed softly.
“Charles still doesn’t know.”
Dad looked at him.
“You do?”
“I know what Laura intended.”
“Where are you?”
“I’ll come to you when Sloan is contained.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“You are not in a position to give conditions.”
Richard leaned closer to his camera.
“Then ask your security chief why Peter Sloan entered Bennett Tower twenty-six minutes ago.”
Dad immediately turned.
Evelyn was already calling.
Richard continued.
“Charles.”
“If Sloan reaches the old vault, you lose everything.”
The call ended.
Dad ordered the convoy back toward Bennett Tower.
I refused to surrender the pendant.
For the first time, he did not ask twice.
Nathan rode with us.
Not because I wanted him there.
Because he knew Sloan.
Because he knew Celeste.
Because the people who had destroyed my marriage were now tangled inside a conspiracy older than it.
Nathan sat across from me.
“You really didn’t know?”
“No.”
He looked at the pendant.
“Adrian asked about it once.”
“When?”
“Before our wedding.”
My chest tightened.
“What did you say?”
“That it was your mother’s.”
“Did he ask you to take it?”
Nathan looked down.
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
“I refused.”
I almost laughed.
“You expect that to earn you something?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He swallowed.
“I told him if he wanted jewelry, he could steal it himself.”
“Very noble.”
“I know what I did to you.”
“No.”
“You know what happened.”
“That is not the same as understanding what you did.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“I am not asking you to forgive me.”
“You will never get that.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
Bennett Tower appeared ahead.
Half the building was dark.
Emergency vehicles surrounded the entrance.
Dad’s head of security met us downstairs.
“Sloan used an old service route.”
“Where is he?”
“Sublevel four.”
Dad cursed.
I looked at him.
“What is on sublevel four?”
“The original Bennett archive.”
“From Mom’s time?”
“Yes.”
We descended through a private elevator.
The doors opened onto a corridor lined with thick steel.
A security officer lay unconscious near the wall.
Alive.
Dad checked him.
Then we heard a gunshot farther down the corridor.
Everyone froze.
The security team moved ahead.
Dad pulled me behind him.
I hated it.
But this time, I stayed there.
Another sound.
Metal striking metal.
Then a woman shouted.
“Stop!”
Nathan’s face changed.
“Celeste.”
He ran.
“Nathan!”
He ignored us.
We followed.
At the end of the corridor, Peter Sloan stood beside an open vault door.
A weapon was in his hand.
Celeste stood several feet away.
Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
She held a metal case against her chest.
Nathan stopped.
“Celeste.”
She looked at him.
For one second, something real passed across her face.
Then Sloan raised the gun toward her.
Nathan moved without thinking.
He slammed into Sloan.
The weapon fired.
The shot struck the ceiling.
Security rushed forward.
Sloan fought like a man who had prepared for this moment for years.
He almost reached the vault.
Then three officers forced him down.
Celeste collapsed against the wall.
Nathan stood over Sloan breathing hard.
Sloan laughed.
“You idiot.”
Nathan stared at him.
Sloan looked toward me.
“You think she was the target?”
He nodded toward Celeste.
“Neither of them mattered.”
Dad stepped forward.
“Who is Blackthorn?”
Sloan smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
My father’s face became stone.
Sloan looked at my pendant.
“Open it.”
I gripped the sapphire.
Dad said nothing.
Sloan laughed again.
“Laura hid the ledger where the one person Charles would protect could carry it forever.”
I stared at him.
“What ledger?”
“The real one.”
Celeste looked at me.
Her voice shook.
“The list.”
“What list?”
She wiped blood from her brow.
“The names of everyone who helped Blackthorn.”
Dad looked at my pendant.
“If Laura hid that inside the necklace…”
Sloan smiled.
“You finally understand.”
I pulled the chain over my head.
May you like
For the first time in sixteen years, the sapphire felt unbearably heavy.
Because inside it might be the answer my mother died protecting.
